With She Feels Pretty retired, there’s a heavy preseason favorite to win an Eclipse Award as champion older turf female of 2026.
Gezora took down She Feels Pretty last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and is set to make her first start this year in the same race She Feels Pretty would have targeted had she made it back to the races – the Grade 3, $500,000 Modesty on May 1 at Churchill.
Trainer Chad Brown confirmed the Modesty as a comeback spot for Gezora, with connections eyeing the Grade 1, $750,000 New York Stakes on June 5 at Saratoga.
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Gezora has not yet raced for Brown, having won the Filly and Mare Turf for her former trainer, Francis-Henri Graffard. Gezora won the French Oaks last summer, though she came into the Breeders’ Cup somewhat overlooked after a 13th-place finish in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Gezora campaigns for longtime Brown client Peter Brant and got onto a workout pattern in mid-February at Payson Park in Florida.
A day after Gezora’s return to action, the Brown-trained standout Ways and Means will make her first start since June in the $1 million Derby City Distaff at Churchill. That’s the same spot in which Ways and Means launched her 2025 campaign, finishing third in a loaded renewal of the Derby City Distaff before beating Scylla – who in November won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – by almost eight lengths in the Bed o’ Roses at Saratoga. No filly or mare earned a higher Beyer Speed Figure during 2025 than the 111 Ways and Means got in the Bed o’ Roses. Like Gezora, she has worked steadily at Payson Park during winter and early spring.
Brown once again appears to be loaded with older female turfers. He has Segesta and Dynamic Pricing in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on Saturday at Keeneland, with horses like Whiskey Decision, Pretty Picture, Kathynmarissa, and Grayosh also in steady training. And keep an eye out for the 4-year-old filly Sandtrap, who missed all of 2025 after finishing second behind Gezora in the Prix des Reservoirs in October 2024. Sandtrap, out of the Brown-trained graded stakes winner Zindaya, is on a regular workout pattern at Payson and could surface in a New York allowance race.
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